What is Muziris?
Prabha Sridevan
THE SAGA OF MUZIRIS by Sethu Niyogi Books, 2017, 432 pp., 495
September 2017, volume 41, No 9

Muziris is the story of generations, Muziris is the story of an Ahalya waiting to come alive, she is a life force lurking to be discovered from behind termite-ridden pages, she housed a civilization to be celebrated, she influenced the financial structure of the world, her shores were dangerous and the Yavana sailors came in to eat, drink and to whore, ponnode vanthu kariyode poka, she held so many sights and sounds. And what happened to Muziris ?

‘Nature had her rules and truths. When the land went against these rules and truths, the sea knew how to take back the land that it had given in its mercy,’ says Kichan. Aravindan the sakshi recorder lets us hear the voices of Perumal, Jaleelikka, Azad who speak of her today, and of the people who inhabited her long ago, Ponnu, Adrian, Thanka, Kichan and of Achumman and Bezalel who speak of a time before today.

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